do.

a rescue is underway on russia's far east coast as ice breakers strive to save hundreds on board the last five vessels that became stranded when we could get. the end is no insights in this very difficult and drawn out saugor at sea we'll bring you all the details in just a moment. also among the week's main news the unexplained mass deaths of birds and fish around the world feels apocalyptic prophecies and some experts say

a sensation. using that science speak up. a string of terror linked arrest across europe is concerned that some background checks are letting extremists in. and the immigrants who bring them their work visa tree say getting a green card is not red but it will help today new. from moscow this is. but first more than three hundred people stranded on board a ship in the freezing waters off russia's far coast are still awaiting rescue it's the last of five vessels that became stuck more than a week ago when they became trapped in the ice let's get more on the rescue mission

from artie's tom barton tom what state is the operation right now. will carry the operation is now in its final stages or at least approaching them there are two icebreakers currently trying to get ready to tow out the last of the ships december thirtieth the first ships became stuck in the ice at the height of the drama there were five ships stuck in the ice. two of those managed to get free themselves two of them were towed away and now we're left with just one the largest of the ships with three hundred people on board and it's required these two ice breakers to come together to try and move it. yes as you say three hundred people on board any predictions on when your deal will be over four. fingers across that that will be quite soon or planning to start clearing the ice around it and towing it momentarily we think one of the other ships being towed away now the

will be ready to to start that operation on board the ship they've been there obviously for over a week now. all these three hundred crewmembers. there is no immediate danger to them they're in an ok state we managed to talk to the captain earlier and he told us about his hopes and when they think they'll be getting moving. everything depends on the weather when the wind comes down the rescue operation will become quicker right now the cross an icebreaker is on its way here we have enough water and food supplies that can last us for four months. it was the weather that really caused all of this crisis in at the beginning very cold temperatures for the season about minus seventeen degrees and a lot of very high winds have created ice formations very fast and very thick ice which made all the ships get trapped in the first place and then slowed down the

rescue efforts this ship is also a very very big ship so it's needed to icebreakers to tow it but with an operation beginning soon it's hoped by everyone but everyone all of the ships could be removed from the ice momentarily. ok let's hope so tom barton reporting there thanks for now. live from moscow this is r.t. and later in the program we report from iraq. snow means the privilege to scavenge for the junk yards untouched by the billions of dollars we pumped into the country's reconstruction. a series of mysterious deaths around the baffling scientists and staring speculation the first incident to be nativist was went backwards because for them from the sky the american state of arkansas unions leave flocks of sweden and it's really what it is but it is a fish from brazil to new zealand triggered some far fetched online guess what. the

calls range from pollution to signaling the beginning of the end but filmmaker and blogger danny schechter says media sensationalism is taking the focus away from finding the real scientific causes behind the mysteries. when one set of incidents happens followed by another set followed by a third set suddenly it becomes a trend then it becomes a much bigger story in the media but it's still sort of a mystery it may be that each example is actually specific to a particular local set of circumstances we don't know they're calling it. you know for a flock of birds coming up with new catchy words new ad lives and the like obviously it's something that intrigues audiences even if there isn't a lot of explanation it seems to be a pattern of this sort of thing where you know alarmist headlines followed by

a few examples which then you know lead to sober conclusions about the dramatic events no religion then there's no follow up for so you know we really never find out what really happened and this is the in attention of the media maybe even the amnesia of the media the refusal to speak to the people who are most in the know because all of this is sort of tittle asian for the public and yet it could be a very serious. ekta there now our security is being tightened at britain's major transport hubs is the latest in a series of measures with european nations increasingly fearing imminent terror attacks authorities say they foiled several serious attempts and that the wave of recent arrests is proof they're coping as you go to school for ports austria people are wondering how terrorist suspects are managing to walk straight through the use front door. like many others small you would be and downs in southern austria seems

quiet and peaceful while never judge a book by its cover one of its residents is now under arrest suspected of being the brains behind network recruiting extremists and plotting attacks in the heartland of the european union and ethnic chechen that's one way it was detained at the airport in vienna. to mecca news about the incident went around the world or streams really none of the locals seem to know much about it. we didn't hear anything about it. i'm afraid i wasn't for this. i know nothing about it and i don't care some didn't want to be filmed at all but was it really because of a lack of information. and the deputy chief of one of australia's biggest newspapers has been personally following this case or and with only a voice recorder. he was more successful in getting the locals to share. his with

a really big population become unity with. so that people are sinking what what what comes next i mean this is just my neighbor he was here with me and now he has his arrested because of her suspect. what would his wife and children really appear to be leaving an ordinary way if one of the most striking facts about this latest case is that the suspect has. he claims he lost the after being caught up in violence in chechnya well investigators are looking into or no other version whether his hands off well handling explosives this is raising questions all austrians hell well asylum seekers are checked before getting it as one of the most liberal asylum policies in the european union last year alone the country. received over fifteen thousand refugees from across the world with such an inflow of newcomers it's becoming increasingly cord to find out who is who

we want to know from the government how many cases actually did this background checks to make sure that this people are not criminal or dangerous second in how many cases austria has received. information from the countries of origin. and search in how many cases asylum seekers actually have been refused the latest arrest is part of a massive police operation targeting an alleged extremist network in late november twenty six people were detained in germany and the netherlands all suspected of recruiting so-called jihad just can't get it in financing terrorist organizations it can be here in. and it can be in any other town in europe in an effort to get more information seekers the e.u. is now making deals with countries of origin including russia but many experts warn

with hundreds of thousands of refugees already living in the union because sequences of policies of some of its member states still lie ahead. vienna austria. so they had this hour the fairy tale land that's now at risk free thinking data. center is under threat as authorities try to sell off the land. the u.s. is pumping billions of dollars into regenerating rock with thousands they're still living below the poverty line yet to see any improvement in the things standards. sébastien by reports forced to live in dumping grounds scavenging through waste just to earn a few dollars. at seven am every morning. fatima crouch is outside her house and along with her sister and cousins begins to sort through garbage displaced from

southern iraq that miss family is too poor to send her to school and so she works eight hours a day sorting through baghdad's landfill collecting plastic and metal that will be shipped abroad for recycling a reward for carting forty pounds of trash around two dollars and fifty cents behind me six acres of baghdad's trash to many this is just waste but for the families here this is not only their livelihood but also their homes over two thousand people live on baghdad's landfill. making their homes out of the garbage that the rest of the city throws away there's no running water or electricity and certainly no access to medical treatment if someone gets sick they have to be taken to hospital the same way they get drinking water by donkey cart can you believe it from iraq you would live in a shack made from garbage people who. change so we could see if it's iraq is still a wonderful place by god if you will treat she was gone and we have

a new government but the situation was reliving in shocks america spending fifty three billion dollars on the reconstruction effort in iraq but the residents of our jet haven't seen a dime of it what they have seen though is the sectarian violence the drove them from their home five years ago. we used to live in abu ghraib you know then america came the war increased in iraq people started killing each other and so we fled because we were freed in two thousand and five names family moved to the landfill and has been living there ever since too afraid in too poor to return home only the american occupation turned iraq into a battlefield as well as sowing the seeds of political corruption how can americans stand back and watch without intervening in this situation everybody knows about the failure of the iraq economy this is having a terrible impact on the ground both socially and economically. experts worry about the children who grow up too poor to go to school without an education and they're

easily preyed on by criminal gangs and terrorist organizations who lure them with money and promises of a brighter future. how can it fulfill a dream will even fear i can't accomplish anything nothing good security if you really want to go back home if there is no work only need security that's it iraq remains a very dangerous place where kidnappings and murders are part of daily life for these families living on a trash heap is still better than living with sunni neighbors back home but until that is possible until american reconstruction dollars reach the quarter of iraq's population that lives in poverty children like fatima will continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian meyer party in baghdad. while the us piles billions abroad it leaving little in the u.s. for those who choose to make america the new home thousands of immigrants who have secured the sought after green card finding they are being sidelined soon this too

explains their education and experience is being ignored condemning them to a life of paid work. in the united states and here in new york every year countless people play the lottery. and train for a chance to win or a mega million dollar fantasy believing a few dollars and a dream could buy them so for the life of a ticket that could change their lives every year more than ten million people also play a different kind of lottery and fifty thousand when i meet one of them my name is owen gemini and her husband teenage son and seven year old daughter you see here. are immigrants from nepal they entered and won the united states diversity visa lottery this lottery is a congressional mandate it's supposed to be an opportunity for people to come to america from countries with historically low rates of immigration the jackpot with

permanent residency the prizes not cash but green cards and this startling experience is due to about us we have to start from scratch from zero once we got here two years of struggling with joblessness after finding their education in nepal doesn't count in the u.s. setbacks they never expected this to we didn't know people used to say you're educated it will be easy america is a big country with a lot of facilities life will be better but in reality everything the food in the. us to hire. experts who work on immigration issues a lottery winners really are given no resources from the government that invited them here and the struggles of jimena and her family are not unique for most people we have and counted it's been very difficult they reflect a group of immigrants who come to the u.s. not because of a job lined up or a family sponsoring them but for many because of the vision of what they can

achieve they really have that american dream of coming to the u.s. they know that they've invested in their education and they. i think that the united states is the place to put that skills those degrees and that ambition to war with the greatest possible return. when many find is maybe something though here already of an ethnic neighborhood like this one as southeast asian music restaurants and fashion what many struggle with is finding economic opportunities that are any better than what they had in their home country or even finding jobs that allow them to survive here we're seeing a lot of this downward mobility of immigrants and often very highly qualified goods . finding foreign degrees and experience don't count for many u.s. employers these immigrants end up taking anything it means engineers and business managers and up his cab drivers and cashiers according to a study two out of five ford educated immigrants are either in this situation or

unemployed all together it's an american dream they want to wake up from if you've got if we had known this we wouldn't have come life was much easier in my country people who see their plight firsthand or you the government should help more i do think it's the state department's responsibility and i think that the united states is going to lose out relative to other countries taking that step possibly losing out to countries such as canada and germany unless they make sure winning the lottery actually pays off more and mr r. t. new york. today as well. the u.s. congresswoman has seriously we've been shot in the head outside a grocery store in the state. six others were killed in the round pages democratic real giffords was acting photos. critical condition one of her aides was killed in the carnage one why don't you want. the rest of the twenty two year old to work.

thirteen years on the way in southern sudan on an equal referendum the center for the worst most troubled nation sports and. the christian dominated self is widely expected to choose panels from the mainly muslim with the clashes have mounted the run up to talk about the vote is part of a two thousand and five peace deal which ended decades of civil war that claimed to be the annoyance and displaced any voices from his. two french nationals abducted of madrid had been killed by their captors to attempt to rescue them. from anywhere from dead following clashes between security forces and the kidnappers the hostages were seized on friday in a barn accompanied by a man no group has admitted the crime but the speculation of shoot was behind it. when police in mexico found fifteen headless corpse is outside a shopping centers on. among more than two dozen bodies discovered

a hundred and signs were left by indicating the deaths were there to rival drug gang turf wars terms in my twenty's. there is a corner of copenhagen where the restaurants say that free to live their lives according to the rules but this particular danish delight is on the threat of the state now trying to set off the net and. paid community visit. i get tired of pushing papers around ninety five are you sick of posting to the government telling you what to do well then welcome to. a country where things get done by the people for the people it began in one nine hundred seventy one when he pees in freethinkers squat in forming military barracks their aim was to build a society from scratch where the only government would be the residents themselves no home ownership no violence it's

a co-op community forged by the fifteen hundred strong locals perfect for people like filmmaker missed who has lived in christian yet since it was founded if you have this ability to administer yourselves then you also got bigger responsibility for your surroundings and that is something which is lost in large cities today for new this is the most peaceful and welcoming place you could find in denmark possibly in all of europe we want to keep up some of the virtues of the village where people know each other and also dependents and feel responsibility for each other so what's their secret to peaceful coexistence people actually take responsibility for the area themselves they don't expect. an authority or some sort of guy from the from the city to come and take care of things we would do it ourselves in fact christine you seems to be extremely attractive to moes danes a recent newspaper poll found one hundred fifty thousand copenhagen residents would

love to up sticks and settle down in this euro utopia. such a lot of fairy tale atmosphere here and we have also saying you shouldn't know what's around the next corner that should be some kind of surprise unfortunately the biggest surprise right now comes from the city authorities who want to string the x. is christine mia the land is owned by the state and the state and the state can't do anything about the land if they want to have more housing there if they want to . to be possible to build something in the area of prospering that's the crux of the problem residents pay their taxes to the state and a serious fee to christian year but they do not own the houses they live in you're not allowed to make any money off your house and here the house is owned by christina and you live there and rented from kristina and you can't sell it on because we don't want speculation and interest and money in this place but that's something copenhagen city council wants to change by forcing residents either to

buy out or move out even if we live in the stores which many years to build up i'm ready to give it up if it has to be a fright again it's the privatization ideas i don't want chrissy added to probe the charges for now the courts are deciding and although peaceful coexistence and tollers are two of these communities cornerstones its residents refused to bow to big brother without a proper fight it even. christine you copenhagen denmark. or you can check out r.t. dot com for more on the stories we're covering as well as blogs games and a lot more here's what's also online right now rediscovering i see this beauty you see numbers of tourists coming in trunk stranded on trees picturesque landscape sightseers birthplace soldiers from georgia. also how israeli army secrets are house click away troops when they should social network sites. at the

time dot com. american census have taken the n word out of the classic novel huckleberry finn well it was deemed offensive to the african-american community but critics say the book is a work of art the product of its time. gauges feelings in new york. a new edition of mark twain's huckleberry finn is being published this time without the n. word has political correctness gone too far this week let's talk about that do you think they should be editing it like that no you don't sound the same doesn't sound

the same no no but what if it was a word that was derogatory towards you and maybe what if it were a word that was offensive to you. i would look at this of a piece of art so some mark of deference no matter what it should stay has there ever been of piece of art that has offended you absolutely. you know i think what about twenty years ago there was a work called his christ by andre serrano. it was offensive but serrano had the right to create that work and i think it provokes some very good discussions as to what or can do and should do what if they wanted to add the bible to take out all the offensive parts. i'm against all kind of things that you should take out so i think everybody should have their own opinion and they should be able to say what they want yeah i think so what if it was offensive to you i don't listen. that's

the way d'etre will think they think it actually adds to the work yes i mean that's what the. term for the times was so if there were words that were offensive to this time period should those be included in our literature and reflects what we're about today. yes who should be governing what's offensive to people and what's not there should be no governing and individual should know if they respect themselves respect their parents they would know what's right and wrong but don't you think people are going to have different points of view. and what's offensive and what's not yes but that's why i just bring it down to if you do respect yourself and respect other people it all comes out in the end you think people will naturally be an offensive to each other. will they necessarily know should they yes sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never harm so no name has ever been offensive to you because you know what you have to be emotionally disturbed to have

any mean benji and there's some more and more deeper than in me. so it's ok for anyone to call anyone anything. it depends on how you say it is the bones on in the context that you use the word whether or not you believe the n word should be taken out of huckleberry finn the bottom line is we should consider have homogenous and boring the world would be if we take political correctness to five. back with headlines after a short break stay with us here about.